Tinnitus and suicide: recent cases on the public record give cause for reconsideration

Abstract

Suicides among tinnitus sufferers are rare. Indeed, on examining the public record (newspapers and the Web), the authors identified only 4 cases in the past 10 years that had been examined by a coroner. Nevertheless, the deaths of Rick Tharp, Dietrich Hectors, William Morris, and Robert McIndoe prompt reconsideration of the association between tinnitus and suicide that appears to be weak. The article also draws attention to a subject that is receiving attention in the medical literature--namely, the role of "precipitants" (in this case, tinnitus) in completed suicide and the need to screen some cases of severe, disabling tinnitus for the presence or absence of coinciding psychopathology, which is very amenable to treatment.